Yamaha TG500

The TG500 is basically a box-o-sounds. It is based on Yamaha's SY85 (1992)
and doubles the polyphony but loses the sequencer and most of the buttons
and controls for real-time and patch editing. You can go with just the
stock sounds, their sound quality is excellent, using AWM2 (Advanced Wave Memory), Yamaha's synth-engine
of choice since the days of FM-synthesis. You can also add external ROM cards
for many more sounds in various styles. Despite the lack of controls, the TG500
has edit capabilities as extensive as the SY-85, and is easiest to program
using an external or software based editor.

But as we said, it's a box-o-sounds with four expansion card slots right on
the front-panel (two slots for data cards & two slots for wave cards) and a
big fat volume knob. Six individual audio outputs make tracking or
live PA mixing possible. It has three basic modes of operation: Voice -
allows access to one patch at a time. Multi - allows up to 16-part
multitimbral patches for sequencing. Performance - split/layer up to 4
patches across keyboard. Like the SY-85 it's got multi-mode filters and
a dual-effects processor with chorus, flange, reverb, delay, exciter,
parametric EQ, echo, ring modulation, leslie, distortion, etc. The
effects can be used in series or parallel, and there are 4 busses to
route sounds through them.
The TG500 was a great and economical way to get Yamaha's AWM2 style
sounds, but may seem limited today.

... loop kind of samplers, and can't do keyboard range samples, splits, velocity layer etc. The TG500 seems to say it can do all this. Anyone tried this? What is your opinion of the TG500 or ... | Read more...